To Stand Beside Her (7 page)

Leila pounded on the door
until it
opened.
She did not want to be told by some old man with his own priorities what would make her happy.
Angrily
,
she exited the priest’s chamber and walked back to her room
with Theo and Marcarius in her wake
.
As
all three
approached
Leila’s
room, she turned
,
took their keys
,
and opened the door herself.

“Thank you,” she said
,
handing the
keys back to a shocked Theo
.

Chapter 4

How dare he talk about Erich?
If it weren’t for stupid kings trying to force me to marry them, he would still be here.
Leila took some food off the table
.
She stomped back
to the bedroom and climbed back up into her chair by the window
,
passing Kay on the way
. It was past lunch time
.
Leila
was hungry, but the chains around her wrists would not allow her to eat.
Kay kept away kn
o
w
ing
that Leila needed time to think.

Leila tried to fight back tears.
It had been four years
since
King Jahangir had
imprisoned
her in his jail when he made the same proposal
that ended with
the death of Erich,
her partner and fiancé.

I am happy, Erich,
she lied to herself.
As happy as I can be without you.
Leila had not spent a day without thinking about her dead fiancé. She wanted to be happy
,
but without Erich, it was not possible.
She stared out at the horizon.
Beyond her view w
ere the mountains and
the home
Leila
was raised in.

I need to get Kay out of this,
she thought.
That’s where she needs to be.
Leila heard the outside door open again
,
and she quickly wiped away her tears.

“Miss,” a young
servant
girl asked
,
peering into the bedroom.
“Could you please come with me?”

Finally, someone with manners
, Leila thought.
She climbed down from her chair
.
Kay st
ood
in the middle room.

“You, too,” the girl requested
of Kay
.

Kay and Leila followed the
servant
girl.
Theo and Macarius
trailed
the three girls.

“Please sit there,”
the servant
asked
,
pointing to two chairs in the room.
Theo and Macarius stopped and waited outside the room.

In th
e corner of the room was a fire
place that was lit.
It seemed odd to Leila that a fire would be lit somewhere where the heat was
hardly
bearable
during the day anyway
.
Leila and Kay sat silently
,
waiting to see what was going to happen next.
A
n older lady
entered
with hair dyed bright red
and
three male assistants
.
The lady
walked over to Leila and pulled
Leila’s
hair away from her face
,
examin
ing
her
as Leila kept perfectly still.
Then the woman walked over an
d
inspected
Kay the
same way.

The young girl returned
,
carrying a case that she sat on the table next to the chairs.
The older woman opened her case and began to sort through the jewelry inside it.
Every now and then
,
she would stop and hand an assistant something specific.
Leila watched what was happening but was not sure she was correct in her thoughts. In
Lexia
,
engaged
women pierce
d
their ears
and
w
ore
ornate jewelry
to announce their
engagement
.
Nalick was marking his intentions.
Leila stood up.
All six people in the room looked at her.

“Kay, we are leaving,” Leila turned to go out the door.

Before Kay had a chance to stand, one of the men placed both of his hands on her shoulder
s
and forced
her
to stay sitting.
The two other men acted at the same time to hold Leila back down in her chair.
Caught off guard and w
ith her hands tied to her waist, Leila was unable to fight back efficiently.
She had not assumed the men were there to fight.

“The king has ordered you be prepared for your upcoming wedding,”
the red
-
haired woman
explained.

“Then why are you holding Kay here
as well
,” Leila demanded.

“I was told that the king plans to marry both of you,” the woman continued.
Leila’s heart sank.
Was Nalick truly a man who would not only force one
,
but two women to marry him?
Leila struggled to try to free her
self
from the two men.

“I was told you were a fiery one
.
Everyone in the palace was told that they could not harm you for
any reason
, no matter how disrespectful you were, but the king never said anything about punishing her.”
The woman walked over and forced Kay’s hands onto the table.
The man holding Kay down placed her hands palm side up as the woman st
r
uck Kay’s hands with the lash
she had just pulled
out of the bag.
Leila
continued to
struggle
as the two men held her in her chair.

“You will learn some manners,” the older woman said to Leila.
Kay closed her eyes but did not make a sound as the woman whipped
her
hands five times.
When she was done, the woman walked over to Leila.
“You will learn that we all follow the king’s orders, no matter who we are.”
Leila continued to struggle.

Kay opened her eyes.
“Leila, please stop.
It is okay.
I am fine,”
Kay
lied to her friend to try to calm her down
, although her
hands were red
with
welts beginning to form.

“Let go of me,” Leila said angrily to the men still holding her in her chair.
“
I have never killed a person before, but there is a first time for everything.”
Both men did not hesitate as they immediately released her.
Leila walked over to the door and opened it.
Theo and Macarius were not outside the door, but a new guard was there.

“Where is Nalick?” Leila demanded of the startled guard.

“Um, at this time of the day, um,” the guard looked at Leila’s face and was beginning to get scared.
“He should be in his office, on the fourth floor of the royal wing,” the young guard began to explain.

Leila knew where she was going.
She took off down the hall as the young guard stood near the door wondering what he should do.
There were two prisoners
.
W
hich
one he
should follow was the question
,
but before he could decide Leila was out of his sight.
On her way up the staircase, Theo
came
down the stairs.
He was
so
startled to see Leila coming up that he just stopped and let her pass by.
After
Theo
realized
Leila
was alone, he hurried to catch up with her.
Leila climbed the stairs two at a time and was soon
on the fourth floor.
Theo followed close behind, but did not try to stop her.
From the look in her eyes,
Theo
had a good guess where
Leila
was head
ing,
and he didn’t want to bear the brunt of her anger.
Leila took a sharp
left
at the fourth floor door and pushed past the guards that stood in the doorway.
N
ear
ing
Nalick’s office, she noticed a figure at the end of the hall standing on the balcony.
I
t was him.
She walked down the hall quickly.

“How dare you!”
Leila
yelled at him.

Nalick slowly turned around
,
unfazed by the angry Leila that stood before him.

“This is the best time of the day,”
Nalick
said
,
turning back to look out the balcony over the city.
“The city gets this deep red haze that fills the sky.”
He continued to ignore the anger in Leila
’s
voice.

“She doesn’t deserve to be punished for what I say
.
” Leila wanted to slap Nalick, but with her hands chained down she was unable to.
“You are truly the man I heard
tales about
,
forcing two women to marry you unwillingly.
”

Nalick still didn’t give into her anger
.
“
A
s a kid I would sit here for hours, just waiting for the sun to set and the sky turn blazing red.”

Out of frustration, Leila turned around and walked away from Nalick.
She
walked
half
way down the hall
before she stopped and returned to him.
“What do you want?”

“You already know,”
Nalick
continued to stare out at the city. The sun was beginning to set and the sky was slowly turning a burnt red color.
He paused and turned to face her.
“I am not a monster.
You name it and it will be done.
All I ask for in return is that you stay here with me
.”

“First, Ka
y will be set free
,” Leila began her demands as she continued to pace.
“
You will send no men to follow
her
.
Kay will be allowed to return to our home alone.
Second, I will not be your prize.
I do not want to be treated as an object placed in the palace as an ornament.
I will be free to come and go as I please.
” Leila paused to give
Nalick
time to object. He did not so she continued.
“
Third, you will take no other wives beside me.
In my culture, we do not believe a man can marry more than one woman
at a time.
What you
Lior
nobles do is
disrespectful
.
Fourth, there must be love. We do not marry unless we are in love where I come from.
I will not marry a man I do not love, no matter what we agree now.
”